Podewell played a teenager in the short C. G Conn promotional film Mr. B Natural as a boy who gains the cameraderie of his peers through music. He also appeared in the original “Mr. Wizard” television series. He later attended Emerson College in Boston (where he was a classmate of actor Henry Winkler), and earned his doctorate in theater from New York University. Rumor claims that Podewell recieved the nickname "Buzz" from his younger sisters Penny and Polly because they couldn't pronounce "Bruce". His father Les Podewell was also an actor and co-starred with him in the Mr. B Natural short.